Rock Candy

Why Riverfest stopped payment on CeeLo's check

Yesterday, we reported that Riverfest had a contractual dispute with headliner CeeLo Green over the length of his set Saturday night at the First Security Amphitheatre, and would not pay him anything beyond their initial deposit: "Most entertainers require a 10-50% deposit, and CeeLo's was on the higher end of the deposit range," said board spokesperson Cheddy Wigginton. This morning, in a statement to THV, CeeLo's manager denied that the festival had withheld payment, saying that "despite reports, they were given a check after his performance for the full amount discussed."

So which is it? Wigginton clarifies: "He has not been paid in full, we stopped payment on his check today. And CeeLo’s manager knew, when they left Riverfest, that the check they had in hand was going to have a stop payment on it until we could rectify the situation." Wigginton notes that they were debating the contract backstage "during and immediately after the set":

When he was late getting on, we were back there trying to figure out what was going on, and were telling him that he had an obligation to play. Once he hit the stage, we waited to see how long he played. At the end, when he only played 40 minutes, we started talking about our options, and proposed to him exactly what we did today.

He went on to note that they "have not heard from [CeeLo] since" and that "we haven't reached out to them." As to how much CeeLo was supposed to be paid, Wigginton said, "I’m not at liberty to discuss the exact amount, we’re bound by certain things we can say and not say. Somebody else might pay him more or pay him less — it’s a negotiation process — and we were happy with the overall total amount we were going to pay him had the performance lived up to the contractual obligations." Asked whether or not it was a fair assumption that CeeLo was the festival's highest paid artist, he said, "That’s not a fair assumption, and he was not."